Shuttle Columbia re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003, after completing sixteen days in space (Dalal et al, 2012). As the shuttle was being launched into space its left wing was dented and a large piece of foam that was supposed to protect the shuttle’s external tank. This caused a hole of 6-10 inches on the left wing (Howel, 2019). The shuttle, however, didn’t face problems while out there in the space. The shuttle entered the atmosphere at 75 miles above the earth. In the atmosphere, 75 miles is within the thermosphere range. The reason as to why the shuttle did not show any problems while in space is because there are fewer particles which could interact with the spacecraft.
Shuttle Columbia disintegrated at a height of 38 miles from the ground. Precisely, this was 200,700 feet above Dallas. The mesosphere layer of the atmosphere runs from 31 to 53 miles (Palmer, 2017). Therefore, the Columbia disintegrated while halfway the mesosphere. This layer has lower levels of air than the thermosphere which is above it and its temperatures are low (-91 0 C) (Palmer, 2017). In addition, the mesosphere is denser than the thermosphere and the density increases as we approach the earth. According to NASA, at this instance, the shuttle was traveling at a speed 18 times the speed of sound (Howel, 2019).
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Air entered into the left wing through the hole that was caused by the foam. As a result, the spacecraft experienced very high friction both on the outside and inside the wing. This resulted in very high temperatures above the expected highest range of 1650 0 C which can be withstood by ceramics in the vehicle (Howel, 2019). Columbia disintegrated in one second. The explosion was due to the increased buildup of temperatures in the spacecraft.
References
Dalal, S. R., Fowlkes, E. B., & Hoadley, B. (2012). Risk Analysis of the Space Shuttle: Pre-Challenger Prediction of Failure. Journal of the American Statistical Association , 84 (408), 945. doi:10.2307/2290069
Howel, E. (2019, February 1). Columbia Disaster: What Happened, What NASA Learned. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/19436-columbia-disaster.html
Palmer, P. (2017). The Atmosphere . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
